I “sunlight” as a courier, picking up and delivering all sorts of things around the DC area: manuals, interoffice mail, patent applications, medical lab samples, architectural plans, etc.
Today was my first time on a military base since 9/11, picking up something from Ft. Myer (the Army base that surrounds Arlington Nat’l Cemetary and is just northwest of the Pentagon). Being civilian, the gate guard directed me to a side street to have my vehicle searched.
One soldier asked me to open all the doors and pop the hood of my open-topped SUV. I complied, then went over to show him my ID and discuss my reason for entering the base. Two other soldiers (with latex gloves) went about looking around my car. When one of them had trouble shutting my hood properly, I went to help. In the meantime, the third one had opened my tool chest, which is empty except for two prominent things:
My medical sample carrying cases, emblazoned with BIOHAZARD stickers. :rolleyes:
My heart and stomach sank as I imagined being dragged to the MPHQ and interogated. Thankfully, the guard calmly asked me what they were for and why I would need them. I then cheerfully offered to show them the contents. He did want to see them, but from 10 feet away. (Freezer Gel Pack and Biohazard Spill Clean-up Kit.)
I was thankfully allowed on base. I made sure I didn’t overstay my welcome.
Even before the 9/11 incident I very often drove onto base. The one inparticular that I’m thinking of is in the south eastern tip of Georgia. I had gone onto base regularly for over a year, it’s where I went to the grocery and where I took my child to day care.
I had/have this wonderful sticker that says I belong there, since my husband is a Naval Officer. So, I would just drive through the gate and they would salute and I would keep going.
Well, one day I was in my mother’s vehicle and without thinking twice about it, I drove onto base. Just as I was getting out at the commisary a nice MP drove up next to me and asked me what I thought I was doing and “Could I see some ID mam’ ?” It was fortuatous that I was 8 months pregnant because I had left my ID in MY vehicle, he took pity on me and let me go with a warning but none the less followed me off base…oh, well, so much for getting milk, bread and eggs on that trip.
That was only the first layer there was another gate closer to the water front since the subs there carry nukes. Past there is another gate gaurded by a marine with a visible weapon, and then at the submarine itself there is a topside gaurd with a firearm. It might not be the most glamorous job in the Navy but it’s certainly one of the safest.
I’m currently sitting several floors underground on a military instalation as a civilian. Dont take on base the obvious. Drugs, weapons,etc. I come on base 5 days a week at the same time. I’m clean and what not but I’m a civilian and I almost couldnt get on base the night of sep 11th. It didnt help that I had hit a 'coon on the way to work that night and my car was making some strange scraping noises (plastic pieces dragging on the ground and part of the fan rubbing, NOT RACOON BONES ).
dead0man
Well *I’m * currently sitting on the first floor of the command building of a military base, and I have to say that I haven’t had any trouble, because I’m not silly.
In fact, every time my wife and I come back from off-base travels, the MPs croud around our car to pet the dog (he’s so cute).
Near my hometown of Hampton VA, there sits no fewer than eight Military installations as well as two naval shipyards.
Such proximity brings with it the existance of several military surplus businesses. In those places of business, one often finds uniforms or components thereof.
As youth, we learned early on that one does NOT wear military garb onto a military installation unless one is in the military!
A few hours detained by an MP at Ft Monroe taught us THAT lesson!
I was at a base over the summer, the national scout jamboree in Ft. A.P. Hill Virginia. Thank God nothing like sep 11 happened there, that would have been a mess, 40,000 civilians camping on a military base without transportation out (the busses were all around the country doing other trips that week)… well anyway… sorry about the slight thread hijack…
At the base security was strict, they had long lists of things NOT to bring into the base. I can’t imagine how it would be if it happened after the 11th of September…
Ah, King’s Bay. Home of the man-eating mosquito, how I do miss it.
I used to visit a lot of sub bases as part of my old job, invariably it involved a rental car. Every once in a while, I’d get stopped by the guards for a random puppy scan. I was always paranoid that the person that rented the car before me hid his stash in the spare wheel. Thankfully it never happened.
Not really relevent to what’s going on today, but…
When I was in grades 4-6 I lived on a base in Germany - CFB Lahr. During the Gulf war, there were patrols of military personnel walking the streets in the Canadian residential areas, complete with weapons. We had two armed men on our school buses - one at the front and one at the back. Armed men patrolled in and around our school - I distinctly remember writing a grade 4 math test and looking up at the small windows just under the ceiling and watching army boots trudge past every few minutes. If we had to go to school later than the buses, we had to show our ID (issued if we were 10 or older) before being allowed in to school. Going onto the Kaserne to do groceries, go to the department store or dentist, etc or even to watch a movie on base involved a car search as often as not.
The bases in Germany (Lahr and Baden-Baden) are closed now, but I can easily imagine the same kind of security there if they were still open.
So, I would just drive through the gate and they would salute and I would keep going.